In his role as IBM MEA General Manager, Saad is responsible for business operations, driving revenue growth, client satisfaction, and employee engagement across the Middle East, Africa and Turkey. IBM has made significant investments in the MEA region’s future and the development of local economies, with a direct presence in 30 countries.

IBM MEA has core capabilities in hybrid cloud, AI, blockchain, data, security and quantum computing, with Global Competency Centres, two research facilities in South Africa and Kenya and Technical Exploration Centres to serve clients, governments and the ecosystem.

Saad is an experienced IBM executive with deep industry, services, and technology expertise working across multiple geographies. Throughout his career at IBM, Saad has held various strategic and leadership positions.

Prior to his appointment as General Manager of IBM MEA, Saad was most recently the General Manager for IBM Asia Pacific’s Global Technology Services (GTS) where he was responsible for GTS’ performance across five markets: Australia & New Zealand, ASEAN, Korea, Singapore, as well as India & South Asia. He has also served as the Chief Operating Officer for GTS globally based in the US, where he enabled transformation to support clients’ needs in an increasingly cognitive and digital IT environment. This appointment is Saad’s second term in MEA as he served as the General Manager for GTS in MEA from 2011 until 2016. Saad joined IBM as an engineer in the UK’s Hursley software laboratory. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Oxford Brookes University, and an MBA from the University of Southampton.